TimesOnline has just published an article on the NEW swine flu vaccine - and recommends that pregnant women ask for this in addition to last year's if they had it.

[JosephineClaire]

Has anyone else heard this?

I had a swine flu vaccine at about 10 weeks - I'm now wondering if I need another at 34 weeks...

Last year one of the SF jabs had thimerosal in it and one didn't. I think you could get the one without if you asked for it? Not sure.

The usual seasonal flu jab does have it in I believe but neither of the HPV vax do.

As a side issue: now that mercury is no longer in the infant vaccinations, having a thimerosol-containing vaccination for pregnant women would skew the numbers of children alleged to have suffered brain damage or not due to thimerosol. That is: if one is told, well look, the numbers of autistic children haven't changed much despite no thimerosol: do remember that the children may have had thimerosol in the womb.

in dental fillings if your worried about mercury you would be best advised to get rid of your dental fillings while pregnant these pose a far greater risk then a one of vaccination as they release detectable amounts of mercury into your system every day.

www.cfsn.com/dental.html oops sorry not got the hang if links yet this should be it now.

Dylthan -- do you regard that website as a credible source? how about the bits about faith healing and nutritional medicine?

To say the mercury in fillings poses a risk is no doubt true. To say it poses more of a risk than infant vaccinations is something which you can't substantiate at all. To say this means the problem with thiomersal in vaccinations is irrelevant for pregnant women is certainly not true.

Don't forget the thiomersal in a vaccination can cross the blood brain barrier. Testing blood mercury levels won't find the mercury which has travelled to the brain and remained there.

I'm so confused.

I've posted about whether to get the flu/swine flu vaccine before, a few times in fact - am now 30 weeks pg, underlying health condition and working in a school. I'm 'high risk'.

Even my midwife and doctors are contradicting each other in telling me what I should do.

No-one knows enough!!! I sit here feeling my baby kick and can't risk a vaccine that could damage it (or even induce a miscarriage, as some reports suggest) but nor can I ignore stories like Tangle's, which broke my heart to read.

I want someone to tell me the right thing to do.

www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/00_pdf/VSD_Chart_of_Autism_Studies-Updated_Aug_18_09.pdf thiomersal and autism studies.

And that's why they took it out...

Biscuit I really feel for you - I was pregnant this time last year and as I've posted above, it was nerve wracking not knowing what the right thing to do was. Best of luck.

Dental mercury only leaks if the fillings are damaged. When I ground my teeth during a period of stress, I broke my fillings and had to have the fillings removed by a specialist dentist. It's not the same as having mercury inserted straight into your veins. (The digestive system does have ways of dealing with toxins.)

It does not go via the digestive system. It's released as mercury vapour and is absorbed by the lungs.

Chewing is what causes mercury to be released from your dental fillings and for some reason gum especially nicotine gum causes the most mercury to be released.

Taking this back to the query Saggar asked about last year's H1N1 vaccination program... this is what the DOH told me at the time:
"The UK has contracts in place to procure vaccine from two manufacturers, Baxter and GSK. The Baxter vaccine is called Celvepan and the GSK vaccine is called Pandemrix, ... The GSK vaccine contains an adjuvant to boost the immune response. However, the Baxter product does not contain an adjuvant."

The GSK vaccine contained thimerosal. The Baxter one wasn't easy to come by.

Someone should be asking the DOH if they plan to make a thimerosal free version of the 2010/11 seasonal flu vaccine available to pregnant women. This year the seasonal flu vaccine/H1N1 vaccine are wrapped up in one.

Dylthan, that's not what my specialist Harley St dentist said, but I guess you'd know best.

So is aluminium the alternative to mercury?

There's no way I'd take a thimerosol vaccine if I were pregnant. It appalls me that it's recommended when the outcomes are unknown.

hello i'm new to this but just wanted to say, not to have the flu/ swine flu jabs for fear of mercury is nuts. FACT: flu kills pregnant women and their babies with frightening regularity. the risk from mercury however is poorly researched and often tenuous.

your choice: dead from flu because of fear of something that happens so rarely that it can't be properly studied for lack of people affected? OR alive a bouncing that baby on your knee with as much chance of heavy metal poisoning as walking past a bus depot?

It's not nuts at all boo. Read the thread. I'm not sure where you are getting your ideas from but your argument isn't very sensible.

18 years as a medical microbiologist. i read the papers last year when i was pg with my 3rd.

Thanks boo It's actually frightening that so many women are not aware of the amount of pregnant woman and babies who end up seriously ill in hospital or losing their lives.

Coralanne,

I know. I think that it is easier to think that one is healthy now and any interference is a negative. It is hard to take the imaginative leap of imagining being seriously ill thanks to infectious disease. I think it is like imagining being really cold in the heat of summer. I find it almost impossible to do.

Boo, impressive credentials! I wonder if the anti vaccine lobby will pay your qualifications and work any respect at all?

miniature - actually I'm going by the WHO see section 6.2.2 for dental amalgam.

www.who.int/ipcs/publications/cicad/en/cicad50.pdf However I'm very sure your harley street dentist knows more than an international group of experts.

oh and the vaccine dosen't go into a vein it goes into muscle.

Aluminium is an adjuvant used to stimulate your immune response.

Thiomersal is a preservative.

There not the same thing so not interchangable .

Although surely if your against mercury you should be against any heavy metal being injected into your system.

Heavy metal poisoning is dose related and additive the amount in thimersal is minimum. Do all those who don't want to get vaccinated due to this avoid salmon ALL the time? Over time, you will get far more mercury from oily fish than vaccinations.

So what is the preservative now used in childhood vaccines and the cervical cancer jab instead of mercury?

International accademy of oral medcince and toxicology a scientific study:

www.iaomt.org/articles/files/files193/The%20Case%20Against%20Amalgam.pdf

The smoking tooth video:

www.iaomt.org/videos/

Can I just say DO NOT get your amalgam fillings removed when pregnant. You are exposed to much more mercury when your fillings are first put in or taken out. No self respecting dentist would take the fillings out whilst you are pregnant for this very reason.